Diluting cask strength

[Göran]

I usually enjoy my whisky at (approximately)40% and therefore dilute my cask strength whisky with water. Are there any superior alternatives to ordinary tap water?
I have however discovered that the whisky usually tastes much better if left to rest in a bottle for at least a week. Does anybody else have the same experience?

Regards,

[Ize]

Greetings Göran,

I conclude from your name that are from Sweden. I think that in Sweden it is same as in Finland where I live, you can buy domestic spring water from the shops. That is very reasonable way to dilute your whisky. I wouldn't bother to order from Internet water from Scotland (sorry scots ). Although, the tap water in most parts of the Finland is spring water, I usually dilute with the tap water anyway. And In big cities the filtering is nowadays so good, that I can't find/taste that much differencies between tap water of big city or smaller places.

Breathing is good for most of the whiskies, but for instance, IMO, Lagavulin 16 got worse after one month.

Kippis,
Ize

[Gate]

There used to be a bottled Islay water drawn from a source which filtered through peat - it was brown and looked pretty unappetising, but it was great for adding to peaty malts from Islay or anywhere else. I haven't seen it around for quite some time, though, and as Ize says, not worth paying to ship all the way to Finland or Sweden... I find that plain ordinary London tap does the job adequately if there isn't anything else, and you lucky Scandinavians are probably blessed with better water than that from your own taps. I tend to dilute to a bit above 40%, but do it gradually, tasting along the way. With some malts, the flavour development is remarkable - Lagavulin seems to get stronger as it gets diluted, I suppose because the alcohol content gets less dominant and the peaty elements get a chance to come through.

I didn't quite get the comment about resting the whisky in a bottle - is that after diluting? I've never tried that, but I do get the impression that when diluting in a glass, the water seems to bring out the aromas strongly but dissipate them quickly too, so you should finish the glass reasonably quickly. Not that that is usually a problem...

[DLion8888]

Usually, I would have several opened bottles on the shelf. I can not discern any change in taste as days go by. So, my reply is that if there is a change I dont notice it.

The only problem I have with using tap water is that hopefully you dont take your whiskey glass, turn on the faucet, and put the glass over the tap. How about using a dropper? No, I find those kind of 'too much work'. Thats why I prefer my whiskey neat from the bottle even at cask strength.

Leo

[Gate]

Neat from the bottle is OK for really bad whisky which you don't want to smell, but on the whole I prefer it via a glass....

[DLion8888]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gate:
Neat from the bottle is OK for really bad whisky which you don't want to smell, but on the whole I prefer it via a glass.... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I dont mean when I said "Neat from the bottle" that I chug directly from the bottle. And I dont drink bad whiskey either.

[Gate]

Well, that's me told. Seriously, though, bad whisky can be good fun: check out http://www.celticmalts.com/journal-c4.htm

[DLion8888]

That article is very interesting Gate, thanks for sharing. I am familiar with Alex's writing as I read a lot of his posting in another forum.

And I also was in India recently and brought back two bottles of the McDowell's he was talking about. I have to say however that I find that whiskey pretty good.

[Gate]

I saw a bottle of McDowell's in India a few years ago and didn't buy it: I bought "Bagpiper" instead. That was a bad call: it's horrible, and I've since been told it's made from a molasses base so isn't really whisky at all!